5/3: Fox Creek to Stream Near VA 670

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• Miles 511.8-527.4 (15.6 mi.)
• Total ascent: 3540′; descent 4413′

Rachel and I eat a lot of things on the trail that we wouldn’t in our “real” lives. But tonight, we made a dinner so comically gross that we chose to throw the final 20% away uneaten.

Our recipe, not that we’d ever suggest making it, was:

• 4 c instant potatoes
• 3 packs ranch tuna
• 1/2 c olive oil
• 4 c water
• 2 tbsp garlic salt

We ran out of fuel last night, so we were prepared to cold-soak our potatoes. What we weren’t ready for was the double-hit of MSG from the tuna combined with the hint-of-garlic salt; and for the incomplete dissolution of the potato flakes, resulting in an oily suspension akin to grits.

After Rachel gagged, we admitted to each other we were only continuing to eat due to the dinner-before-snacks rule. Fortunately, and especially so the day before a resupply, we had spare trail mix with which to make up the calories we’d tossed.

In other not-so-news, our feet hurt. We spent through our mile today, afraid the terrain would encumber us as significantly as it did yesterday. We enjoyed flatter, softer ground today, though intermittent showers slowed us down.

We stopped for more than five minutes only twice today: for first lunch, of pepperoni and cheese burritos at an unsheltered camp site; and at Trimpi Shelter, where we ate second lunch.

At Trimpi, we saw the only five people we’d see all day (though we’d seen two of them, Cindy and Suzanne, earlier that day: when we filled water after breaking camp, and briefly while hiking). The other three we met were Bambi and Blanc, a couple; and Riptide, who we’d met around 100 miles back when she was hiking with her mother, who evidently got off the trail at Damascus. Riptide, a late-teens student with a shaved head and a pink shirt, hauled out a ukulele and played her eponymous song while we waited out the rain.

The shelter itself was made of concrete and stone. Between four bunks stood a wide chimney, also made of stone and concrete, and below them a wooden floor. The spring, barely 100 feet away, was piped, and the privvy (also nearby) was built as solidly as some shelters we’d encountered.

Today is noteworthy for at least one more reason: We’ve now been on the trail for two full months! We’re very close to the quarter-way mark, putting us on track with the itinerary we’re following (though not by simple division: the summit of Mt. Katahdin closes in 7.5 months).

In Marion, Virgina, tomorrow, at the top of our list is laundry (my hat and socks smell surprisingly, disgustingly alike) and an outfitter. We plan to buy new liner socks and one of the large-capacity gas cans, due to supposed shortage of the latter in the towns ahead. We don’t plan to restock on oatmeal,which takes too much time and fuel to make in the morning, and instead hope to make do with Pop Tarts and oat bars.

Also, much as I hate to admit it, I’m looking forward to having an internet connection. We’ve had near-zero service since Damascus, around 50 miles ago.

All we need to do is reach Partnership Shelter, barely 6 miles ahead, and catch a shuttle into Marion. Hikers wiser than we are warned us town would become tempting, and it indeed has.